Best Friends

zhì jiāo

This an alternate way to say best friend in Chinese.

The first character can mean "most," "extreme" or "best." The second character means "making friends" or "building friendship." There's sort of a suggestion with the second character that fate caused you to intersect in life and become friends (that character can mean intersection in some context).

This can also mean "most intimate friend," "very good friend of long standing," or "closest friend."

Best Friends / Buddies

The first character can mean "relative" or sometimes "parents." The second character means "friend." Think about the close relationship that Japanese people have with their parents and relatives, and this starts to mean "close friends."

Extremely Good Friends

莫逆の友 is Japanese expressing meaning, "extremely good friends" or "best friends."

Fate / Chance Meeting

yuán fèn

These two characters contain the ideas of fate. But this is specifically the fate or destiny that brings two people together.

緣份 / 緣分 is like the chance meeting of two people that leads some time later to marriage.

This could also be the chance meeting of two business people, who become partners and build a huge and successful company.

Basically, this is an idea often associated with a fateful meeting leading to good fortune.

Some will define this word as, "The destiny brings you two together," or "Meant to be."

Note: The second character can also be written without the left radical, as shown to the right. If you have a preference, please let use know in the special instructions for your project. There is no difference in meaning or pronunciation, just two (alternate) ways to write the same character.

Forever In My Heart

This means, "forever in my heart" or "always in my heart" in Japanese.

Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

Forever In My Heart

ei en ni watashi no kokoro no naka ni

This means, "forever in my heart" or "always in my heart" in Japanese.

The character breakdown:
永遠 (eien) eternity; perpetuity; immortality; permanence.
に (ni) indicates the location of a person or thing.
私の (watashi no) my; mine.
心の中 (kokoro no naka) the middle of one's mind; the midst of one's heart.
に (ni) indicates the location of a person or thing (makes this "in" the middle of one's heart).

Note: There's more than one way to say "Forever in My Heart" in Japanese, so you'll find another version in our database. This is the very verbose version.

Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

Friend / Friendship

友 is the simplest way to express the idea of friends or friendship in Chinese.

It can mean friend, companion, or pal in Japanese. In Korean, it can mean friend, companion, or associate.

This single character is open to interpretation, so it can mean different things to different people (not necessarily a bad thing, as you can decide what it means to you). If you want a more concisely-defined word, you should probably pick one of our multi-character friendship-related words.

Once in a Lifetime

This Japanese title can be translated as "for this time only," "chance meeting," "one meeting, one opportunity," "never again," or "one chance in a lifetime."

The characters literally mean "one time one meeting" - of course, the Kanji characters have meaning far beyond a direct translation like this.

Some might use this proverb to talk of an opportunity that presents itself just once in your life. It could also be the single chance-meeting with your true soul mate. Basically an expression for any event that might happen once in a lifetime.

This is primarily a Japanese title, however, there is also a Traditional Chinese (and old Korean) version of this proverb. Just the last character is different.The traditional form was used in Japan before WWII and in Korea prior to 1900. This title is somewhat known in China.

If you want the older traditional form, just click on the character to the right.

Most Sincere Friend / Honest Friend / Real Friend / Best Friend

zhì yǒu

This one way to say best friend in Chinese.

The first character can mean "honest" or "most sincere." The second character means "friend" or "friends" (plural forms work differently in Chinese).

Soul Mates

tiān shēng yí duì

It was tough to find the best way to say "soul mates" in Chinese. We settled on this old way to say "A couple selected by heaven."

The first two characters together mean "natural" or "innate." Separated, they mean "heaven" and "born." The last two characters mean "couple." So this can be translated as "A couple that is together by nature," or "A couple brought together by heaven's decree," with a slight stretch, you could say "A couple born together from heaven."

It's a struggle to find the best way to describe this idea in English but trust me, it is pretty cool and it is a great way to say "soulmates."

If you're in a happy relationship or marriage and think you have found your soul mate, this would be a wonderful wall scroll to hang in your home.

Soul Mates

靈魂伴侶 is kind of the western way to express "soul mates" but translated into Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.
The first two characters mean "soul" or "spirit."
The second two characters mean "mate," "companion" or "partner."

Although not the most common title, these characters have good meaning and will be received well in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. It's a universal title!

Spiritual Soul Mates

jīng shén bàn lǚ

sei shin han ryo

精神伴侶 is title means "Spiritual Soul Mates." The first two characters mean "spiritual" or "soul." The second two characters mean "mates," "companions" or "partners."

精神伴侶 is more about the spiritual connection between partners rather than a "fate-brought-us-together" kind of soul mates.

Both halves of this title have meaning in Japanese but I've not yet confirmed that this is a commonly used title in Japan.

Spiritual Soul Mates

tamashii no han ryo

魂の伴侶 is a Japanese-only title for soulmates.

魂 means soul, spirit, immortal soul (the part of you that lives beyond your physical body), or the conscious mind. In the Buddhist context, this is vijñāna or viññāṇa (consciousness, life force, or mind).

の is a possessive article that connects everything together here.

伴侶 means mates, companions, partners, spouses.

Together Forever

yǒng yuǎn zài yī qǐ

永遠在一起 is "together forever" in Chinese.

永遠在一起 is a great idea for couples making a commitment of a lifetime.

Together Forever

zutto issho

ずっと一緒 is "together forever" in Japanese.

The first three characters mean "continuously," "throughout," "all along," "the whole time," or "all the way."

The last two Kanji mean "together."

Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

Together Forever in Love

yǒng yuǎn ài zài yī qǐ

This is "together forever in love" in Chinese.

It's a nice phrase if you're a couple who plans to stay together and make your love last as long as you live.

The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...

In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line.In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese.

All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.

When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.

Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!

When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.

The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"single-character wall scroll.We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.

Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.

There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.

Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.

The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also
attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over
6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers
in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt
such a feat.